Kida Nedakh
Kidagakash "Kida" Nedakh is the deuteragonist of Disney's 2001 animated feature film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and its 2003 direct-to-video sequel Milo's Return. She is the daughter of the King Kashekim Nedakh, King of Atlantis, and later becomes Queen, and the assumed wife of Milo. Despite being born a princess, Kida is not marketed as a Disney Princess due to her film's poor box office results. As an adult, she is voiced by Cree Summer, while Natalie Strom voices her as a child. Physical Appearance Like all Atlanteans, Kida has white hair and dark skin. She has blue-colored tattoos (which represent teardrops), which appear to change slightly after she becomes Queen, and large blue eyes. She also wears a shard of the crystal around her neck. As a princess, she wears only a simple blue bikini, the bottoms are covered with sarong type skirt and she goes around barefoot, but changes into more elaborate clothing and obtains sandals after becoming Queen. With the power of the Atlantean crystal, Kida and the other Atlanteans are given abnormally long lives. Though Kida is roughly 8,500 - 8,800 years old (according to Milo), she physically resembles someone in their late teens or early 20's. Personality She is also a warrior princess, making her strong and very skilled at combat. It is mentioned that several thousand years ago, Kida would have killed outsiders on sight. By the present time, however, Kida has become so curious about Atlantis's past that she is willing to let in outsiders with the hope that they could help her rediscover Atlantis's history, even as far as taking a liking to Milo. She is shown to love her father, and later Milo, very much. Although she can seem quite forceful, violent, and aggressive at times, she has a kind heart, and a general respect for all creatures. Development From the beginning, the filmmakers wanted Kida to stand out from other Disney Princesses both in appearance and in personality. So as not to appear as another damsel in distress, they created her to be a warrior woman with strength to overcome hostility. While she is not recognized as the first African-American princess in a Disney animated feature, she is a character whose skin was much darker than that of the usual leading Disney female, besides Esmeralda, as part of the overall design of the Atlanteans. The supervising animator of Kida was Randy Haycock. Randy further wanted to develop a unique appearance for Kida that made her different from the other Disney Princess. Going through various magazines and looking at models, he drew her with a slightly wider nose and full lips. He also wanted to play upon the characters personality of being stoic and firm while also having a soft, playful side that is left out when she meets Milo. Cree Summer provides the voice of Kida. Cree was excited to finally get to voice a character in a Disney animated feature after having been in the business for over fifteen years by that point. Haycock noted how he felt intimidated by Cree's wild and unique personality the first time he met her and drew inspiration from that into developing scenes where Kida and Milo first meet. Natalie Strom voiced Kida as a child in the film's prologue, which was added in late in production, while Cree would reprise the character in the sequel. Trivia * Although a definite princess by birth, Kida is not included in the Disney Princess franchise because her film did not do well in the box office. * With the exception of The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, Kida is the first Disney heroine to show how she lost her mother (followed by Anna and Elsa), which explains her absence in the original film. * Kida is the only Disney heroine to have natural white hair. * Kida is the only Disney heroine to have her kingdom be first above ground and then be submerged underground. * She is also the second heroine to come from an underwater kingdom, after Ariel. * Kida is the oldest female heroine as she is over 8,000 years old! * However, considering that one Atlantean year is approximately 300 times longer than that of one human year, if Kida's age was translated back to that of a normal human's, then she would probably by only 28 years old, still making her the oldest amongst the heroines who are in their teens. * Kida is the third heroine to expose her midriff, after Ariel and Jasmine. * Kida is the first princess created by Disney to ever inherit her parents' throne on-screen and become a (ruling) queen, since she lost both of her parents over the course of the film (her mother was sacrificed to save her kingdom in the prologue and her father was murdered by Rourke), followed by Elsa. Snow White, Aurora, Jasmine and Rapunzel would inherit the throne, as they are the only children of their parents and thus the only heirs. These four Princesses would then become sovereign rulers of their homelands. The other Disney Princesses are likely to become queen consort (Cinderella and Ariel) or are in line for non-kingdom thrones (Belle's Prince Adam is a Sovereign Prince of a Principality, Pocahontas' father was an elected Chieftain, Mulan had no royal ties at all and it seems unlikely Naveen would be King of Maldonia considering he happily settled down in New Orleans). Also, Merida after being given the choice of either marrying Young MacGuffin, Young MacIntosh and/or Wee Dingwall (originally she ended up with the first above) eventually decided that she didn't want to marry any of them since she realized that she doesn't need a husband anyway. ** Not quite: Snow White can inherit her father's throne AND her prince might not be in line to become a king (either he is from a sovereign principality or a younger son of a king). Prince Adam (Beast) is a sovereign prince. Aurora will inherit her father's throne, Phillip will inherit his father's throne and their child will become ruler of the unified kingdoms. * Kida is the second heroine to have a visible tattoo, after Pocahontas. * Kida's tattoos resemble a dot and two curved lines on top of each other, just below her left eye. According to her animators and the book "The Mark of a Princess" (which explains the meanings of the Atlantean tattoos seen in the film, see below), they were supposed to represent teardrops. At the end of the film she gains a second tattoo on her right cheek (resembling a mirrored version of her first tattoo) and a third on her forehead (resembling a stylized "V"). * In Milo's Return, Kida does not have her extra tattoos in which she obtained at the end of the first film. * Also, her dress in the sequel does not resemble the one at the end of the first film (it is now a strapless dark turquoise dress with two slits on either side and a gold chevron pattern on the hem, with a red sash at the waist and a dark blue cape with a gold underside attached to the rear). * It's revealed in a sequel short story called "Milo's Rescue Mission" that Kida can actually revert to her princess outfit even as a queen (the only indication that she's a queen are her extra tattoos on her face), and can even remove her tiara at times. * It's mentioned that Kida actually wears her Queen dress over her Princess outfit on formal occasions. * Kida is the second non-white Disney female to have an unusual eye color, after Esmeralda, who has green eyes, while Kida has blue eyes. * She is not officialy a Disney Princess because although the film was successful worldwide (186 million), but it was a commercial failure in the United States at 84 million. * Coincidentally enough, she is also the second Disney female lead to wear anklets, also after Esmeralda (Esmeralda wears one anklet, while Kida wears two). * Kida's dress at the end was only seen completely in a few concept art such as in some character galleries in Disc 2 of the 2-Disc Collector's Edition, and the books "Subterranean Tours: Atlantis: A Traveler's Guide to the Lost City" and "Milo's Rescue Mission" (though without a tiara, see above). All other book illustrations showing her in that dress either show only the top half (Play-a-Sound book, Wonderful World of Reading, Dark Horse comic, Atlantis 2002 calendar, etc.), have the train (back part of the dress) cover the front (Read-Aloud Storybook, various coloring pages), or seen from far away ("The Final Stand", "How to Draw", Ladybird book, "Kida: The Heart of Atlantis", etc. Additionally, her face character incarnation at the theme parks depict her in her queen dress and tattoos, but without a tiara. A rare Halloween costume based on this character resembles her queen dress (because again her princess outfit is too revealing), but unlike the face character the costume also includes her tiara. * Likewise, her huntress armor when her mask is removed is only seen completely in some promotional artwork (in the film, she is only seen from the knees up when she is wearing her armor, but not her mask, except for a brief shot of her from behind when she and her fellow subjects are leading the explorers to the palace). * As a princess, Kida is barefoot, but as a queen she wears sandals. Therefore, the queen appears to the only Atlantean to actually wear footwear (even all of the kings, including her father Kashekim Nedakh and eventually her husband Milo, are barefoot). * The feathers on Kida's tiara at the end (one large pink feather between two smaller blue ones) resemble the ones on Jose Carioca's tail. * The pink chevrons on the dark blue-with-gold outlines sash hanging from the front of Kida's otherwise mostly light blue dress in the ending, from the shoulders down, form a "V", an "X", a "^", (the ones we only see in the film) a "][", a semicircle and another "^."(implied, see above books) * Though she does not appear until halfway through the film, three tie-in storybooks, "Kida and the Crystal", "The Mark of a Princess", and "My Princess Collection: Kida: The Heart of Atlantis" are basically retellings of the film's plot but from Kida's point of view. What's different between those three books is that the first ends during the scene where Milo and Kida are shown exploring the underwater mural, while the last two continues from that point, including her kidnapping and subsequent crystallization by Rourke, her being rescued by Milo and his teammates from Rourke and protecting Atlantis from an erupting volcano, and finally her marrying Milo and beoming Queen (the only difference being that "The Mark of a Princess" is narrated in third-person, while "Kida: The Heart of Atlantis" is narrated by Kida herself). * Kida's color scheme (dark skin, white hair, and blue eyes) resembles that of Storm's of the X-Men. It also resembles Princess Yue's from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Queen La (who has cyan eyes) of''The Legend of Tarzan''. * She also resembles Nefer-Tina from the show Mummies Alive, whom Cree Summer also voiced. * Milo and Kida are the only Disney couple in House of Mouse that were not once seen together. * Kida's appearance, design, and outfit in House of Mouse resembles how she appeared in Milo's Return. * Kida may have been based on various anime female leads from various Japanese works whose premises are similar to that of Atlantis, but were all created beforehand, such as Sheeta from Laputa: Castle in the Sky or Nadia from Nadia: The secret of Blue Water. * If you listen very closely, then you can easily tell that Kida has an almost British-sounding accent, otherwise known as "Queen's English". However, she reverts to an American accent (typical of characters Cree Summer voices like Susie Carmichael, Numbuh Five, Foxxy Love, etc.) in the sequel. * The evolution of Kida's wardrobe appears to be the complete opposite of that of Jane Porter's: while Jane starts off wearing more modest clothing but gradually starts to wear less clothing over time, Kida starts off wearing more revealing clothing but gradually starts to wear more clothing over time. * Kida, along with Megara, Eilonwy and Jane Porter, are the only four Disney females not to have any sidekicks. Despite the presence of exotic animal life in Atlantis such as lava whales (giant animals that swim in lava, but ironically look more like dogs than whales) and parrot-lizards (small flying creatures resembling either pterosaurs or dragons), and brief cameos of real animals like a cat (Milo Thatch's (now Audrey Ramirez's) pet) and coelacanths (Preston Whitmore's pets), Atlantis is noticeably the only animated Disney film in which no animals actually appear at all. She is also the only princess without any sidekicks altogether. * Kida is similar to Pocahontas, being that they both dark skin, fall in love with the film's main character, meet the film's villain, & both have fathers who also meet the film's villain. The only difference is that Milo is Kida's love interest in both films, unlike John Smith who is Pocahontas's love interest only in the first film. Another difference is that Ratcliffe doesn't die, where as Rourke does, as with the fact the Milo and Kida marry while Pocahontas and Smith do not. * Due to modesty reasons, Kida's artwork promoting the Atlantis 2002 home release showed her in her queen dress (though without her tiara and extra tattoos), as her left arm was covered by the dress' sleeve. * However, the original 2002 one-disc home release of Atlantis was the only release of that film to actually feature Kida on the cover art along with her husband Milo and his teammates (Mole, Vinnie, Audrey, and Sweet, Cookie and Mrs. Packard for some reason are both absent). The two-disc collector's edition of the film featured only the Ulysses ''submarine and its escape pods but no characters, and the Blu-Ray art for some reason although still has the same main protagonist explorers as the original (Cookie and Mrs. Packard are still absent), Kida is nowhere to be seen except as a silhouette at the very top, but is obscured by the crystal and the film's title (the second "A" is positioned so that it and the Crystal overlap each other) and the two antagonists, Rourke and Helga are added instead. * One of the Blotworx, the Shockers, in the game ''Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two appears to have Kida's hunting mask for a face. This may be due to the fact that one of the game programmers was supposedly a fan of Atlantis, but did not like the fact that Kida is not an official Disney Princess, so he designed that enemy after her since that that game is all about forgotten Disney film characters, and therefore he considers Kida to be "forgotten." * Kida's skin color appears to be very inconsistent depending on the lighting, she is supposed to have lighter skin than the other Atlanteans, but darker skin than Milo's. However, in Milo's Return, Kida for some reason is drawn with extremely dark skin. * Kida's title as "princess" was only mentioned near the end of the film when Milo is gathering the other explorers and Atlanteans to save her from Rourke and his minions. In Milo's Return, she is occasionally referred to as a "queen." * Kida is the second Princess to be seen as a child, after Cinderella, but not counting Ariel (she is seen as a child in Ariel's Beginning), followed by Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, and finally Anna and Elsa. * She is also the first heroine to have her film begin with her seen as a child. Curiously enough, unlike the princesses that follow her (Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, etc.), she is not seen as an adult until halfway into the film. As a point of interest, her film was originally going to begin (which, unusually enough for a deleted scene, was completely animated) with a team of Vikings attempting to find Atlantis using the Shepherd's Journal only to be thwarted by the Leviathan, who then proceeds to destroy the ship, killing all of the Vikings on board in the process and sending the Shepherd's Journal flying into the Atlantic and floating away. * She is also the first heroine to have both of her parents die over the course of the film, followed by Anna and Elsa. * Kida is the first princess to actually care for her own subjects, something all of the official Disney Princesses do not (they are either innocent and carefree or rebellious and wanting to be independent), followed by Elsa. This may be due to her father being too old to rule his kingdom and constantly trying to hide his guilt for letting his people suffer, only to finally admit his wrongdoings upon his death at the hands of Rourke; combined with Kida's personality as a true leader, is what helps her become a good Queen. * In the various promotions for the film, Kida is the only character that isn't shown, nor does she ever have a biography. * Kida was originally going to have pale skin and reddish-brown hair. Her final design appears to be an amalgation of different races, particularly African (dark skin and voice actress) and Polynesian (some Polynesians have dark skin and fair hair), with some East Asian (shape of her eyes), Native American (shape of her nose), Scandinavian (white hair is a common trait in Scandinavian people), and Caucasian as a whole (white/blond hair+blue eyes) elements as well. Although unintentional, this also resulted in Kida resembling Storm. * Strangely enough, one of Kida's early concept art didn't even look human. * Despite not being an official Disney Princess, Kida made a brief cameo in the book "The Art of the Disney Princess". * Kida also made an appearance in the "My Princess Collection" book series along with the first eight official Princesses as with Alice, Princess Dot, and Jessie the Cowgirl. * Kida is the only Disney animated film female to be voiced by a professional animated TV series voice actress (Cree Summer) in her debut appearance. Normally, in animated films (with the sole exception of the Winnie-the-Pooh films, where everyone is voiced by a professional voice actor), professional voice actors/actresses are often restricted only to voicing background characters and/or additional voices. Richard Horvitz, famous for voicing Zim on Invader ZIM, also did additional voices in Mulan as well. * When Kida takes off her sarong, her anklets mysteriously vanish. They eventually reappear when she puts her sarong back on. * Kida is the only multilingual princess. * Kida is the third princess to have a full name, after Fa Mulan, but before Rapunzel (whose married surname is Fitzherbert). * Kida is the first Disney princess to come from a science-fiction Disney film. * Kida is the only princess two have both a male and female villain working together. * Although Atlantis obviously lacks seasons due to it being underwater, Kida's film is implied to take place in autumn (in Washington, DC, at least), since the events of this film are said to have took place on an October. * Kida is represented by the colors blue (clothing and eyes), white (hair), and gold (jewelry). * She is also represented by either her crystal necklace, her tattoos, the Atlantean "A" (a triangular spiral with a dot in the middle), and/or the Shepherd's Journal (her husband's book). * Kida's name originates from a Kiowa girl's name meaning "raising away the darkness." Curiously enough, her voice actress Cree Summer is part Native American, and her first name is also the name of an Indian tribe. * Kida had actually experienced some magic in her life: a lot of the Atlanteans wear magic crystal shards around their necks, which give them magic powers like immortality and healing abilities, and even merged with the Mother Crystal itself. * Kida can be seen crying as her mother is "killed" at the start of the film as Atlantis is sunk underwater. Also, according to Randy Haycock, her animator, Kida's tattoos represent her tears. * Kida briefly twirled as she is drawn upward into the Crystal during her transformation into it. However, since a princess twirl usually ends with something bad happening to them, after her transformation she is locked in a crate by Rourke and Helga. * Kida's facial structure was inherited from her mother's, although her skin is lighter. She also resembles her voice actress Cree Summer as well. * Although we never see her and Milo get married (though it's implied that they do), Kida is the first princess to have a coronation ceremony as she becomes the new Queen of Atlantis (followed by Elsa), although the two ceremonies could possibly be the one and the same. * Kida actually fled Milo after healing his wounds during their first encounter, although they really fled from Mole's digger as they heard it and the other explorers approaching. * Like most heroines, Kida had experience an argument with a parent resulting in a turning point in her life: after being upset with her father when he refuses to agree with her that her kingdom is dying, she goes up to Milo, who has just left the palace, and seeks him his help to bring Atlantis' culture back. * Kida appears to be more attached to her mother, since she was constantly lamenting about her death and why her mother had to die in the first place, as well as the fact that she and her father never get along very well since the Queen's death with her constantly berating King Nedakh for being too arrogant and not caring for his people. * Despite most of her promotional appearances portraying her as being fiercer and more actionized than how she appeared in the film, Kida played the role of the damsel in distress (seventh after Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine, but before Rapunzel) when she is turned to crystal by Rourke and Helga shortly after they kill her father King Nedakh and is about to be taken to the surface, when Milo after hearing from the dying Nedakh that with the crystal gone all of Atlantis will die, and if Kida remains crystallized too long she could die just like her mother when she was younger, prompting him and the other explorers to pursue and defeat Rourke and Helga before returning Kida to Atlantis just in time to protect the kingdom from being burned alive by an erupting volcano. Also, based on her dying father's warning to Milo about her transformation, it also serves as a near-death experience to her as well, making her the seventh heroine to almost die, after Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine and Mulan (Not counting Megara and Anna who actually died but were revived) * The coronation of Kida as Queen of Atlantis at the end of the film serves as a bookend to her film, since Atlantis began with her mother's death during the Great Flood that sank Atlantis, and therefore ending that queen's reign, and ends with her coronation, and therefore beginning her reign as queen. * Not counting Cinderella, whose father was seen only in storybook form, Kida is the seventh princess to have her father present in the film, after Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas and Mulan, but before Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, Anna and Elsa. * Prior to her coronation as Queen, Kida wore bikini and sarong, in a similar style to the one she wore as a child, though obviously due to the massive difference in Kida's size relative to the amount of cloth in her child-size sarong, this cannot possibly be the same garment, even assuming it survived the wear and tear of a warrior's lifestyle over thousands of years. * Of all of the Disney heroines with a confirmed real-life time frame and location, Kida is the second most current, since her film takes place in the 1910s (specifically, 1914). She is beaten only by Tiana, who lived during the 1920s. Preceding Kida, are Ariel (in the early 19th century, before 1837; year of publication of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, as implied by his appearance in the TV series), Rapunzel, Anna and Elsa live the 19th century as well specifically the 1840's (as confirmed in Disney's The Art of Frozen, along with Rapunzel's cameo in the film confirming her placement). In addition it is implied Cinderella also lives in the 19th as well due to the cameo of The King and The Grand Duke attending the wedding of Eric and Vanessa. Preceding them are Pocahontas (1607, based on actual historical events). Despite Belle's alleged cameo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1482, as specified by the original novel), Beauty and the Beast's fashions, politics and technology point to late 18th century pre-revolutionary (pre-1789) France. Also per Glen Keane header animator of The Beast the movie takes place in the 1700s. Aurora (14th century, as explicitly stated in her film), Merida (probably in the 9th century, based on Scots history), and Jasmine ("confirmed" to be during the time of of the Hellenistic Era in "Hercules and the Arabian Night", though it would be impossible given that the Arabic culture described began 1,400 years after the Hellenistic Era, it could have been through the effect of a Genie's wish) and Mulan (specified to be the Han Dynasty AD), with Megara the oldest at some point prior to 500 BC (Note that Hercules's setting is notoriously anachronistic; Helen of Troy 1250 BC is contemporary with Pericles – 429 BC). * Kida would also be the only heroine to probably survive to the 21st century, particularly given her extraordinary lifespan, though Tiana can reasonably expect to see the dawn of the new millennium. * Kida is the first heroine to turn to crystal, followed by Anna. * Kida is the second cel-animated heroine (after Eilonwy) to have her film rated PG. Starting with Rapunzel, all of the princesses whose films are also rated PG, are CG-animated. * Although many Atlanteans treat the Mother Crystal as a deity, it's possible that Kida may have learned about Christianity and to a much lesser extent, Christmas from Milo. * Kida is the first heroine to make contact with automobiles, followed by Tiana. * Kida is the third Disney heroine to be involved in an interracial relationship, after Pocahontas and Esmeralda, but before Tiana. Credit * Disney Wiki Category:Disney characters Category:Female Category:Film characters Category:Heroines Category:White hair Category:Characters voiced by Cree Summer Category:Characters with tattoos Category:Disney Princesses Category:Unofficial Disney Princess Category:Disney Heroines Category:Human Category:Blue eyes Category:Deuteragonists Category:Atlantis: The Lost Empire characters Category:Amazons Category:Warriors